Supergiant Games has been on an unbroken streak since Bastion launched in 2011. Transistor, Pyre, the original Hades. Not a single miss. Hades 2 on PS5 is the studio's first ever sequel, and the pressure to justify that decision was real. Here's the verdict: it was absolutely the right call.
Melinoë carries the weight of Olympus
The setup is lean and effective. Melinoë, sister of Hades protagonist Zagreus and daughter of the god of the dead, was spirited away as a newborn by Hecate after the Titan of Time, Chronos, conquered the Underworld and imprisoned Hades, Persephone, and Zagreus. She has trained her entire life for revenge against an enemy she has never faced, to free a family she has never known.
That premise does a lot of work. Melinoë is a genuinely compelling lead, melancholic where Zagreus was defiant, and the voice work across the entire cast is exceptional. From Hermes' rapid-fire delivery to the understated wit of Odysseus to Zeus' suffocating arrogance, every god feels distinct. The character art backs all of it up.
What most players miss about the build system
The core loop will feel immediately familiar to anyone who put time into the original. Melinoë fights through four progressively harder biomes toward the House of Hades, collecting Boons from Olympian gods along the way. Each Boon modifies one of the four face button functions, and the combinations get absurd fast.
Aphrodite stacks status effects like Weak and Charmed while boosting raw damage. Poseidon leans into knockback and splash attacks. The Boon pool per run is randomised, but there are ways to weight the odds toward a specific god if you're chasing a particular build. The key here is that no two runs feel identical even when you're taking the same path.
Six Nocturnal Arms are available to unlock across the game's progression, each with distinct movesets and playstyles. Deeper into the game, Aspects further modify each weapon in ways that can completely change how you approach a run. The variety is genuine, not cosmetic.
Keepsakes add another layer. Equipped before a run (and swappable between biomes once unlocked), they offer passive benefits like bonus damage against the enemy that last killed you, or a single death-defying revival per night. The planning that happens between runs, back at the Crossroads hub, is genuinely satisfying on its own terms.
danger
God Mode is worth using. After each defeat, Melinoë gains a permanent 2% damage resistance, capping at 80% over time. It's not an instant win, but it guarantees that dozens of runs will eventually open up the systems that make the game click.
Bigger than the original in almost every way
Hades 2 adds a second route through the surface world, locked behind story progression and resource requirements. Without spoiling it, this adds a harder set of biomes that extend the game well beyond what the original offered. Players who logged 100-plus hours on the first game will find plenty of new ground here.
The bosses capping each biome are tough and impressive, though they can start to feel repetitive across extended play sessions. The sub-bosses along the way carry more variety, and there's a particular mid-game encounter built around a musical band that stands as one of the more creative boss designs in recent memory. As you defeat each band member, the remaining ones adjust their performance to compensate. The audio design throughout is exceptional, swinging between broody synths and electric guitar without losing coherence.
Progression between runs is handled well. Resources collected during runs feed into permanent upgrades at the Crossroads, and there's almost always a new line of dialogue from an NPC waiting after each attempt. That constant drip of story and character keeps the loop feeling alive even when a run ends badly.
The PS5 version specifically
The review was conducted on PS5 Pro, and the game runs exactly as well as you'd expect from a Supergiant title. The isometric action is fluid, the art direction pops on a good display, and the DualSense integration adds tactile weight to Melinoë's attacks. For players coming from the PC early access version, the console release is a complete, polished product. For more on what's worth playing right now, check out the latest reviews on our site.
Hades 2 is bigger, deeper, and more mechanically varied than its predecessor. The difficulty will push some players away early, but God Mode exists precisely to make sure that's not a permanent barrier. Supergiant has built a game that rewards patience and experimentation in equal measure, and Melinoë's story is worth seeing through to the end. If you want to go deeper on builds, weapon unlocks, and Boon synergies before you start, browse the guides section for everything you need heading into your first run.
